CONTENTS:-1. Etymology of Kumara Skanda Karttikeya Naigameya Subrahmanya and Sanmukha. 2. Birth of Skanda Karttikeya in the epics and the Puranas. 3. Cult of Skanda Karttikeya in the early historic period. 4. Synthesis of Murugan and Skanda in Tamil country. 5. Esoteric significance of the birth of Skanda. 6. Temples of Skanda Murugan. 7. Iconography of Skanda. 8. Icons of Skanda Karttikeya. 9. Conclusion.

DESCRIPTION

In the Hindu pantheon of Gods Skanda Karttikeya the son of Siva is the only God who is endowed with six faces and twelve hands and named as Sanmukha. His six faces indicate five elements ether fire air water and prthvi and the Life Principle is the spirit that is the Supreme Force. With regard to the faces of Siva and Sanmukha the only difference lies between them is that while the six faces of Siva are endowed with separate names for themselves the faces of Sanmukha do not have any separate name but exhibit the spiritual purpose lies behind each head in the name of Sanmukha tattva. The multi faced God Sanmukha the divine essence of Universal Spirit is being represented in the iconic forms known in the names of Skanda Karttikeya Guha Subrahmanya and Naigameya and exclusively as Murugan in the Tamil country.

Second notable fact is that in the legend of the birth incarnations of any other God we do not come across so much of various explanations and different analysations as we found in the legend of the birth of Skanda from various accounts, i.e., Puranas and other legendary folk tales.

Thirdly while in North India the six faced God had been worshipped as war God in the name of Skanda until the historical periods of Kusanas, Yaudheyas and Guptas, from the post Gupta period the cult of war God changed its course towards South India where even today he is portrayed as hunter God, Red God and popularly called as Mugugan and Muruga. In the present time his cult is known as Kaumaram. Adi Sankaracharya proclaimed the name Kaumaram for Skanda cult and included in the Sanmata. The other five cults in the Sanmate are Vaisnavism, Saivism, Souryam and Ganapatyam.

For many of us it may be the perturbing question that how the cult of war God of North India being synthesized once for all with the hunter God of South India and completely absorbed by the society in the name of Kaumaram. The answer to this question is very clearly explained in the present book.